Wet Aint : Little Rose (1995)

Wet Aint : Little Rose (1995), Matthew Rose. Size: A4. Offset, with perforations on gummed paper. Only 1000 produced; most are gone. Based on the collage (1995). Click image to enlarge full screen. Purchase : 25 €. Buy now : WET AINT. PayPal accepted!

Mister Rose's ABC : A Little Book For Little People - Just Published By Lalande Digital Art Press Paris

Mister Rose's ABC : A Little Book For Little People has just been published by Lalande Digital Art Press Paris. The 32-page, full-color book features original gouache paintings and poetic tongue-twisters that follow the alphabet from Arnold the annoying Airplane to (tough and dumb) Luck to Nero the Nail (he lives in a wall in Mister Rose's house) to the yackety Ying-Yangs and finally, Zoe the zaftig Zebra. [CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE AND READ].

Saddle-stitched and impeccably printed by digital master, Robert Ruscoe at Lalande, Mister Rose's ABC is really a book for kids of all ages, a perfect cadeau de Noël, New Year's, birthday or everyday gift for children or friends.

"Parents will have an enjoyable time reading this to their toddlers and trying to figure out why Ditzy, the deaf-as-a-door knob dog, is always digging and dancing," says Ruscoe who has two little boys. "My favorite is Nero the Nail, or maybe Romney's Rain – "Hey! Don't Complain!"

The play of words and images is typical of the artist's imagination, which is pleasantly skewed towards the impossible and the poetic. "W" is Wally Water, he writes. "Wally is originally from Wabash." Nero the nail "lives in my house," he explains. Karl, his kitten, "computes with a flute." Parents will have quite a time explaining where Wabash is and how you compute with musical instruments.

"It's the kind of kid's book," says the author's father, Irving, "that will probably drive parents crazy attempting to explain the strange words and weird and funny situations. And hey, I know! He's my son!"

[I bribed my good friend Stephane Guyader (below) who runs the baba cool bookstore, Apsara, on the rue Daguerre (75014), to carry a few copies and put them in the window. Cost me a few bottles of red wine, but it's quite fun to be in the window.]

Matthew Rose is an American artist and writer based in Paris, France. He exhibits his collages, text works, paintings and objects throughout the US and Europe. This is his first published children's book. To see more of his work, click : Collage By Matthew Rose.

The ABC, published in English, is specially-priced for web sales at only 10 € each (plus 2 euros postage for France and Europe; 4 € postage for the US). Ordering is easy: Checks (in Euros) or PayPal accepted. Bulk orders (10 - 25) are 7,50 €; orders of 50 or more 5 € each. If you like, the author will sign and dedicate the books if you are giving them as a Christmas, New Year's or birthday gift to someone little or even someone big.

TO PURCHASE A COPY OF MISTER ROSE'S ABC, or heck, several copies now, e-mail : MISTER ROSE'S ABC. [If mail link is not working, e-mail : mistahrose at yahoo dot com]. E-mail us to find out how you can produce your own books.

Keep Calm For Christmas

This Christmas, Keep cool by visiting Keep Calm. Run by a "skeleton staff of two," Lucas and Hayley, Keep Calm is the celebrated web gallery offering inexpensive silkscreened and digital prints by artists from the UK and Europe, and has been featured in a dozen magazines for their quality and quirkiness.

Keep Calm has just offered two prints by Matthew Rose and printed by Lalande Digital Art Press Paris. "Days Like These" (pictured, right) and "Immaculate Perception," are offered in a limited edition of 21, signed, numbered and dated by the artist on 100 percent cotton (Lyson) 350 gram acid free fine art paper. These works are based upon collages by the artist. Each print measures 42 cm x 30 cm. Price is £35 plus postage, exclusively from Keep Calm.

"These prints are typical of Matthew’s works, lifting elements from one source and layering it with another," says Lucas. "Largely influenced by Joseph Cornell, Jasper Johns, Ray Johnson and others, Matthew Rose gets more out of a piece of found or discolored paper with each succeeding work."

Keep Calm features works by Douglas Wilson, Alyson Fox, Jillian Ditner, Jason Synder, Jacob Arden McClure as well as Lucas and Hayley (left). Works are inexpensive but beautifully produced.

Keep Calm was established way back in February 2007 by Lucas and Hayley. Keep Calm offers high quality prints and other bits and pieces. Many products are screen printed by hand. Royal Mail permitting, prints will arrive in perfect condition. If this isn’t the case Keep Calm will replace it! Prints are wrapped in acid-free tissue paper and sent in extremely durable mailing tubes. They ship anywhere! For UK orders, prints are sent via next-day Special Delivery. For international orders prints are sent via International signed-for air mail.

Want to know anything else? Please e-mail Lucas or Hayley at Keep Calm.